He warned Matt Damon it would be hard. Damon didn’t understand until they were on the boat. Now Nolan says he needs years before he tries again.
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Christopher Nolan appeared on NBC’s ‘Today’ show on July 17. He discussed the release of his new film, ‘The Odyssey’, and what comes next in his career.
The director said audiences should not expect another film from him soon. Asked directly whether it would take three years to make his next feature, Nolan responded, “Oh, at least.”
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Nolan said the production of ‘The Odyssey’ pushed him further than any previous project. He described hitting his own physical and creative limits during the shoot.
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“I definitely hit the limits of my own stamina and everybody’s stamina, I think,” Nolan said. He added that difficulty came with the territory. “I mean, it’s The Odyssey, of course it should be difficult,” he said. He said a film adaptation of Homer’s epic should not feel easy to make.
Nolan has released a film roughly every three years for over a decade. “Interstellar” came out in 2014. “Dunkirk” followed in 2017. “Tenet” arrived in 2020. “Oppenheimer” released in 2023.
A three year gap would put his next film in line with that pattern. Nolan’s comment that the wait could be “at least” three years suggests the gap may stretch even longer this time.
Nolan recalled warning lead actor Matt Damon early on that the shoot would be demanding. He said Damon did not fully grasp the difficulty until production began.
“I have a feeling he didn’t really understand until we got on the boat,” Nolan said. He described the moment reality set in for Damon, during a scene involving a hike up a mountain path toward a cyclops cave.
Nolan said Damon experienced “a sort of slow creeping realization” that the filming process would not be easy.
‘The Odyssey’ opened in theaters on July 17. Nolan wrote, directed and produced the film. He adapted Homer’s ancient Greek epic poem, a project he had reportedly been conceptualizing for twenty years.
The film runs close to three hours. It was shot entirely on IMAX 70 millimeter film. Nolan explained his reasoning for that choice, saying if his team was ever going to fulfill the goal of shooting an entire movie that way, this project was the one to do it with.
Matt Damon stars as Odysseus, the king of Ithaca, on a difficult journey home after the Trojan War. Tom Holland plays his son Telemachus. Anne Hathaway plays his wife Penelope.
The supporting cast includes Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, Charlize Theron, Jon Bernthal, Benny Safdie, John Leguizamo, Elliot Page, Himesh Patel, Samantha Morton and Mia Goth.
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